Afterwords
by GearworksPrime
Summary: Years after Cybertron had been restored of its ability to sustain life, an expedition to recover some old friends leads to the discovery that will impact them all. Now they return home to discover what has happened to their temporary home. PS Both shows are owned by Hasbro. I think, so ya other then some oc and the plot its all theirs. Please don't hate me. This is my first story.
1. Beginnings Part 1: Exploration

Optimus Prime stood in a plane of pure light, watching "windows" to areas of cybertron as it was being rebuilt. He saw his former scout BumbleBee looking over the final preparations of launching his ship, with Jazz and Brawn, two of Optimises friends before the war. The former Prime was contemplating what they were doing until he saw the name of the ship. "The Optimus" chuckled The Prime "have I really missed w2w3433that much that my own men name the very first ship they made after me?" As Optimus started to think about it he couldn't help but feel a bit proud, until it hit him.

"How long has it been," He wondered. "Since I had fused my spark with the Allspark?"

Optimus turned around and looked at a monitor showing Bulkhead, WheelJack and three members of the Wreckers that he had not met before. "Why have I not yet returned to Primus so that I may be reborn as another?" He continued to ponder this question.

When Optimus The last of the Primes had fused Allspark with the well of Allsparks he had expected to simply cease to exist and to wait for his turn to be reincarnated again from the well of allsparks like before, but instead he discovered that he had instead been transported to some sort of monitor room which allowed him to watch as cybertron was rebuilt. And while Optimus enjoyed watching his comrades returning home, it was starting to become a bit unnerving to watch the rebuilding process and not be part of it.

Another pulse rocked the plane as Optimus steadies himself while slowly observing the surroundings.

"These anomalies have been affecting this plane for quite some time. I hope that it is nothing that will endanger Cybertron. My brothers and sisters had enough pain for one life cycle"

Just then a pulse unlike anything Prime had felt before pulsated through plane and lasted longer than the previous anomalies. Prime was always a calm and cool-headed bot, that was what had allowed him to survive the war. But this was beyond his understanding.

"Why?" Asked the imprisoned leader. "Why am I still here? Why have I not yet joined my brothers in the well of AllSparks?"

It was then that something unexpected happened. A monitor just appeared out of the blue. It was not the projection that had started him but what was on it. It showed him standing with Elita-one, Hot Rod, Arcee, and other members of his old team and a few other bots that he had known during the war. What concerned him was the bots that he didn't know. They looked familiar but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. It was then he realized that he had not met any of those bots when he had returned to Cybertron.

"But, I am one with the Allspark, I will never meet my friends again in this lifetime." Though the Prime. Then he looked at the picture again looking harder at the 5 that stood out from the group of autobots he didn't know. Suddenly, he wasn't so sure.

BumbleBee was on his recharge berth on the newly created star carrier "Optimus" thinking about his days on earth. It had been nearly five vorns (or 5 centuries in human terms, mused Bumblebee) since he had last been on earth, when they had gotten to reactivate the omega lock and the entire mess with Unicron and his undead predacon horde had happened. He was happy that entire catastrophe had blown over without anyone dying. Well, everyone but Optimus. BumbleBee lay there with a sinking feeling at the bottom of his servers. Optimus prime had given his spark to ensure that Unicron was trapped in the Allspark Container. He and the rest of Team Prime missed him, but it was thanks to him that Cybertron was now healing itself and could now support a population again.

Many of the autobots he never expected to see again were coming back. His old friends Heli, Bumper, the twins femmes Bluestreak and Silverstreak and the unofficial leader of his old scouting team Rodimus had all survived the great war and they had escaped together on one of the refugee ships. They had landed on one of the lost colonies, a planet called "Velocitron" on the old star charts, but the current inhabitants had started to call it "Speedia" due to the fact that everything there was created for speed and racing. They fit in just fine there due to the fact that BumbleBees old group was meant for scouting, message deliverance, or anything for speed. They even found some spark mates on their cycles on Speedia. The genius Bumper and his shy nature had met Lancer, a young scientist that always liked to test theories to the limit but could never work up the nerve to apply for higher positions or claim the promotions. Heli fell mainframe over server Clipper a emergency response vehicle just like him. And good old Rodimus had done what he always does and aimed for the top. He had met a femme named Phoenix on one of his explorations of Speedia. They had crashed into each other and had spent a couple of cycles yelling at each other. That's when Phoenix had challenged Rodimus to a race. The race hadn't even ended when Rodimus, who had no idea how to race, wiped out. Phoenix never got tired of telling that story. Those two were definitely a match made in the allspark.

An intercom buzz snapped Bumblebee back to the present. He looked at the blinking red light and pressed the button.

"This is BumbleBee responding, who's calling?" Responded the scout.

"BumbleBee, this is Jazz we need you to come to the bridge." Responded the current captain of the Star Carrier. BumbleBee remembered the first time he had seen Jazz, he had been on the rescue team that came to retrieve him at Tyger pax. Jazz was the one who had found him after Megatron had destroyed his voice module. After Optimus Prime had called the evacuation Jazz was the one who was in charge of the ark. When it was shot everyone had thought it destroyed. Two years after the capture of Unicron it was discovered that Jazz had figured that the ark would have been destroyed so he had placed the ship in autopilot and had then ordered the entire crew and passengers to the cargo bay where the stasis pods had preserved the occupants of the ship as the mighty ark fell apart. There they stayed until the captured Decepticon Flagship "Nemesis" under the autobots command found them in the wreckage that surrounded saturn where it had be destroyed by the nemesis. That reunion was one of the best events to happened since the war had ended.

BumbleBee was jogging down the corridors to the main bridge when he met Mirage, the new security. The femme looked at the yellow scout and put a quick glance and there servos locked for a few seconds before they both went their separate ways. The white and dark blue racecar was a bit smaller than Arcee, with small blades on her forearms and usually very quiet. In fact she hardly ever talked, the only times he had seen her talk was at meetings and sometimes around the other femmes for what BumbleBee assumed as the Cybertronian version of "girl talk." He also didn't understand why he always felt a bit nervous around her, but it had to wait for another time. Jazz was waiting for him and he didn't want to keep the boss bot waiting.

On the bridge Bumblebee looks around, and saw Prowl, Hot Shot and Brawn were all at different monitors making sure that the ship was in tip top shape. BumbleBee wondered how they were holding up, since they were the original team Prime. The team prime on earth was a ragtag team of autobots who had managed to escape to earth but Prowl, Hot Shot, Brawn, Jazz, Warpath, Ratchet and Optimus were the original team Prime members. They had survived since the beginning of the war all the way to Primes evacuation orders were given. It was there that they had separated so that a veteran would go with a colony of survivors, giving that colony a better chance of surviving the aftermath of the war. The only original team Prime member unaccounted for was Warpath. He had taken the Xantium which was a combination of the archives of cybertron, exploration vessel and any scientists playground. Perceptor was the lead scientist of the ship while Warpath was meant to be head of the security detail. It was the second largest ship to be launched the first being the Ark. Now the "Optimus" was soaring through space to discover the fate of the last of the great refugee ships. The ark being the last of the refugee ships had been targeted by the Decepticons due to it being a easy target. The rest had used the diversion to escape into parts unknown. The other refugee ships were easier to find due to the fact that they didn't want to journey to far into uncharted territory.

"All except the Xantium. " mumbled BumbleBee as he looked at all the monitors wondering where the bot who called him went. "They're the spark forsaken reason why we are even leaving cybertron space."

"What was that?" Asked Hot Shot as he turned around.

"Nothing, I was just wondering where Jazz went?"replied BumbleBee.

"I heard he went to the supply bay"

"What but that's on the other side of the ship. How did he get past me? For that matter, what's he doing in the supply bay?"

"Knowing him he took the elevator."

"Wait I though all of section A's elevators are decommissioned until we get back and have the repair droids continue refurbishing the ship."

"When has that stopped him before? As for why he went down their. He has to settle a quarrel between the emergency responders."

"Those two at it again?"

"Yep"

BumbleBee sighed, and started to exit the bridge. "So, Jazz jumped down the broken elevator shaft." BumbleBee thought to himself. "Can't say I'm surprised. From what prime told me even before the war when he and jazz used to work at the hall of records together he would do things that most bots would deem reckless and even downright crazy." It was this trait and his ability to gain intelligence that earned him the top spot as head of the reconnaissance and espionage division of the autobot army during the war. His ability to stay cool and analyze the situation and create a solution had also landed jazz the spot for third in command behind Ultra Magnus and of course Optimus.

A few minutes of traveling the ship BumbleBee was walking down the corridor that lead to the supply bay, as he began to hear the distinguishable yelling of Clipper and Heli. BumbleBee chuckled as he began to brace himself for what was behind the airlock. As the doors began to automatically open the yelling grew to unrealistic proportions as words seemed to simulate firefights from the great war and just beyond to red bots that were screaming their voice boxes off while one white bot was trying to calm them down.

"No no no, the crates of spare parts should be near the door so if we need bunker down here we will have plenty of cover to hide behind and even distributed to ensure that the ship does not tip over." Yelled the red femme known as Clipper.

"Oh yeah? Then tell me, who would attack us? The war with the Decepticons over, the quintessons haven't come after us ever since Optimus foiled their invasion during the maiden voyage of "The Ark", and every other civilization we met is far too primitive to lift off their homeworld, let alone attack us." Retorted Heli, "and we're in space. How in the name of Cybertron will we capsize. Everything is designed to stick to the floor."

"Until planet fall."

"We might not even need to make planetfall!"

As this little exchange was going Jazz was trying his best to calm them down, but was barely getting a word in, and to Bee it looked like those words were falling to deaf ears. Bumblebee decided to enjoy himself for a little while he analyzed the situation. He had heard the stories on how Heli and Clipper had first met and he was happy he got to see just how the two bickered.

From what he had heard, when Heli had first landed on Speedia was after a civil war had happened there. Apparently one of Megatron's spies had divided the Speedians and as always when two ideals clash fighting broke out. This war, contrast to the war on cybertron, had only lasted for 3 million stellar cycles, and the fighting hadn't been that bad. The damage was repaired in only 2 weeks. After the end of that war the only problems that occurred was isolated incidents caused by local insurgents that were easily remedied and forgotten.

It was during this time that Rodimus and his team landed on that planet and started to make themselves at home thereby making a small "detective" agency. The stranded team did odd jobs for the inhabitants while gathering potential Decepticon activity. During one such intelligence gathering Heli met Clipper, and they began to argue on no clear topic. They continued to argue for a good 12 cycles until a building near them burst into flame. Since the duo were originally meant to be a rescue vehicles they immediately dropped their argument and went to work saving the population.

"Those two were made for each other." Thought BumbleBee, smiling slightly as the two young bots bickered without a care in world. Bee enjoyed this moment of tranquility and hoped that if would last forever.

Meanwhile on the ship's bridge three mechs were musing about the days before the great war.

"I remember when I got my transfer data confirmed with my boss. He had allowed me to go to the crystal city and to help in the construction of it transparent and majestic frames and towers." Brawn recalled "It was the happiest day of my life."

"Heh, ya before your employers wiped it out." Prowl remarked.

Brawn scowled at this remark, remembering the destruction that had been caused by the constructicons during the beginning of the war.

Hot Shot noticed this and tried to stop Brawn from tearing Prowl a new servo.

"Hey now, Prowl no need to reopen old wounds. The wars over, the Decepticons disbanded and are now either nomads like their leader or 2-bit terrorists. Unless they decided to become autobots like Knockout."

"He, ya those second rate bots ain't nothing but trouble. They should be booted off of cybertron." Brawn quirked.

"Now, now lets thank Primus that some Decepticons have joined us and are actually helping us instead of helping the terrorists and hampering the progress of rebuilding Cybertron." Prowl calmly said.

"Ya cause everything's better with those fraggers." Brawn snorted.

"Hey now, no need to go fragging the cons just cause we got some bad energon." Hot Shot said.

"Bad energon? Ha, those cons spilled enough energon to drown half of cybertron in."

"Oh don't start now, we just finished a war we don't need good bots going all vigilante and starting another one."

"Frag off, you weren't even in the fights."

"Because I was a prisoner until prime busted us out towards the end of the war and then we were given the order to evacuate, remember?"

As this exchange was going on Prowl had been looking out the ships monitors which had begun to fitz around.

"Hotshot, take a look at the monitors, something is going on." Prowl quickly interrupted the verbal duel. Hot Shot and Brawn both turned to face the former security officer.

"What appears to be off?" Asked the second in command as he walked toward his monitors. "Everything looks the normal."

"I don't know. Something is causing the scanners to fritz." Than his detective instincts started added, as he looked out the window, "and I think that we should hang on" Hot shot and Brawn follow his gaze as something chinks off the fortified glass.

"Ah scrapp." Was all Brawn could say as a shadow darkened the room.


	2. Beginnings Part 2: Lost

A figure sits at the edge of the debris field watching the stars. Every now and then she could have sworn she saw something. "Just my imagination" was all she thought.

Just then her head started to head started to pound something started to play in her mind.

A image comes into her mind, so blurry that it may as well have been one giant the it started to play out in her mind she heard something.

"I'm supposed to be protecting you."

"Bulkhead, I'm strapped tight in ten tons of metal muscle. I'm protected."

After that some screaming started, but instead of fear it sounded fun. As that memory finished playing out she started to look at the stars, going over all the images that had been popping in her head, remembering the names such as BumbleBee, Ratchet, Arcee, Bulkhead, and Optimus Prime from somewhere but being unable to pinpoint their significance.

As she continued to watch the stars she started to feel the old feeling come back as if she was to cry lubricant. "Where am I? Who am I? Why am I here" As she started to shed silent tears she heard a small rumbling sound. As if a large ship was coming and was far away.

"What's that?" She wondered. "Maybe its someone else. It would be awesome to talk to someone for a change."

As she got up to investigate, a voice suddenly echoed through her processor.

"Unidentified objects detected, preparing countermeasures in T-minus 30 seconds."

"Who is that? Who's there?" The shadow nearly shrieked, an unprecedented fear coming over her.

"Commencing total memory documentation, wipe and total processor control."

Suddenly a memory popped into the shadows mind. A memory of great pain. And then a few seconds later, that was the last thing she felt.

* * *

"Warning! Warning! Debris detected on calculated course! All hands prepare for evasive maneuvers!" Blared the sirens as lights blinked periodically with red.

"No rest for the wicked," mused Jazz as the bickering bots finally stopped. "All right, Heli, Clipper tell the cargo bots to put everything in order and strapped down, I don't want everything to start shaking around like a energy drink. After your done with that get to the engine room. Those generators are brand new and Wheeljack will kill me if his new inventions are scraped."

"Yes, sir!" Replied the two red bots as they began to organize the cargo.

"Bee, you're with me."

"Wha... Yes, Sir!" The former scout stammered.

He quickly followed Jazz as they left the cargo bay. They were about to pass the broken elevator when Jazz suddenly stopped.

"Hey Bee, lets take the shortcut." Jazz said.

"What do you meeeeaaaaaaaah!" was all BumbleBee said before Jazz pulled him by the collar up the elevator with his grappling hook. As the duo was going up, Jazz was laughing as if he was having the time of his life. On the other servo BumbleBee was about to lose the energon he had taken in a few cycles ago.

* * *

Silverstreak and BlueStreak were both double timing to the bridge to receive orders from their commanding officers about the current situation.

"Man, the first mission we get when we returned to Cybertron and this happens."Bluestreak complained.

"Quit fragging," Her twin replied "would you rather be on Cybertron helping with construction or resource distribution? Or maybe you would rather be exchanging shots with Decepticons or the renegades?"

"Ya, ya sis I get it..." Deadpanned Bluestreak as she rounded a corner.

"Or maybe you wanna go after those Predacons that have been popping up and kidnapping bots left and right?"

"Be quiet, already."

"How about terrorcon hunting? I heard that new strains of Insecticon zombies have been popping up."

"Alright already, shut up, you're starting to get on my nerves. Besides, didn't Rachet make an antidote for that?"

"It wasn't an antidote, it was a vaccine. Its stops us from getting infected. It was created to combat the mutated dark energon by having nanobots supercharge regular energon, afterwhich attack the corrupted energon and…"

"Man, only you can bore a bot with a lecture in the middle of debri field."

As they were nearing the broken elevator, they began to hear something.

"Whats that noise?" Silverstreak asked.

As they began to look around they noticed that the noise was getting closer, and as it got closer it sounded like laughter. And it sounded like it was coming from the broken shaft. But that would be impossible. No one would be that…

"Ye HAHAHAHHA! Woo! That was amazing wasn't it, Bee?" exclaimed Jazz as he land with a thump as he dragged the near unconscious warrior behind him.

"Ya, hey Jazz quick question: how on Cybertron do you outrank me?" Bee asked his officer. Jazz simply smiled and looked up noticing the twin femmes for the first time.

"Blue, Silver get your chassis's over here! I got a job for you two!"

The two femmes quickly got over their stupor and snapped to attention. "Sir yes, sir!" Was their reply.

"And enough with the 'sir yes sirs' we're all autobots here and the great wars over so there is no need for civi life to be military style. Ya dig?"

"Yes sir." Was all the twins said.

Jazz simply sighed before giving out orders. "I need you two on ship defense. Join Arcee in the defense hub. Once you're there, Blue, you man the guns. Silver will overlook the shields. I want us to get out of here without a scratch."

"On it, boss bot." Replied Bluestreak as she ran to the gun controls, while Silverstreak simply started to head to the shielding terminals.

"Hey Jazz, what do you want me to do?" Bee ask after regaining some of his processor.

"Bee, I need you to go around the ship and take note of the damage that is caused and to coordinate responses to the ones that need immediate assessment. As much as I would like to, I can't be everywhere at once."

Bee simply noded and started to speed down the hallway to begin his duty. Meanwhile Jazz entered the bridge to refer with his crew about the current situation.

"Status report."

"Sir, the debris field appeared out of nowhere, but it isn't too difficult to maneuver through." Replied Hot Rod.

"If I may sir why have you placed the ship on high alert. its not like we're under attack or in enemy territory. " Replied Prowl.

"I placed this ship under for three reasons," the captain replied smugly. "The first reason is because I'm the captain and I get to make the rules, and second the crew needs the exercise."

"The third reason better be something better than that or I'm chucking you out the airlock." Brawn said with a glare.

Jazz chuckled "if looks could kill, I'd have a hole straight through my chassi."

The bridge got quiet as all eyes were on Jazz with bewilderment.

Jaz would have laughed if the real reason he placed them on high alert didn't make him nervous.

"The last reason why the ship is on high alert is because something don't sit right with me." Jazz said calmly. "A debri field this big should've been caught by our scanners miles away, not when we were in the middle of it."

"Perhaps the debris is jamming our equipment. It isn't rare for ore and still active equipment from shipwrecks to impact our equipment." Replied Hot Shot. His years of experience before the war as a police officer having dealt with criminals who tried to escape him using such a method.

"Maybe," Was the only thing Jazz said before looking out the window at the debris field. "but then Teletram would have warned us of interference with the scanners and we would have been on alert. No, something disabled our scanners and jammed Teletram to display the all clear signal. This all happened pretty recently, too."

"What makes you say that?" Brawn asked nonchalantly.

"Because we didn't receive a signal until a few cycles ago. I was checking Telegram-1 while me and Bee were returning to the bridge to assess the situation. While there I found that someone had sent Teletram a software update. Now that by itself isn't strange. But when I checked when it was sent, it said a couple of cycles ago. I wanted to look into this but I had to access the situation and ensure the situation didn't go down hill any further."

"Think Perceptor's here?" Brawn asked.

"Lets have a look around." Jazz replied as he made his way to the central control center in the middle of the room. " Someone went through a lot of trouble to disable our scanners. I wanna know why."

"What are your orders, Jazz?" Inquired Prowl.

"Prowl, I need you to keep your optics peeled, Until we get our scanners back online I want you to be on patrol with Arcee around the ship. You're the best one when it comes to finding something out of place. I'll tell her to join you when I check on the defense hub. Don't want that dying on us."

"Of course." Was all that Prowl said before he left the bridge.

"Hot rod, you're gonna help me debug Teletran -1. I know that prowl is the best at spotting funkiness but he's just one bot and this is a big ship. I want to at least partially get the scanners working. At least until we can figure out what's going on."

"See you at the ships mainframe Jazz." Was all the Hot Rod said before he sped away down the halls.

"What about me?" Asked a gleeful Brawn stood, revving with excitement for some action.

"Ironhide, I want you on standby"

"Are you fragging me?" Was the reply from the distraught iron giant.

"Wish I was big guy. But in terms of firepower and best support, there ain't anyone else that comes close to you and I need you to be ready for a brawl if it comes to it."

"That kind of made me feel better." The red mech said downheartedly as he started lumbering towards the door.

"Alright boys, let's get this down and out." Was all that Jazz as he joined Hot Rod at the monitors to battle the cybernetic intruder.

* * *

Meanwhile, BumbleBee was in the west corridor heading towards the engine room to make sure that they weren't dead.

"This is just like my first jobs during the war where I had to carry important documents across cybertron." He thought. "At least I'm not being shot at." He chuckled.

Just as he was about to reach his destination he saw something outside the ship move. As he looked out the window he saw nothing out of the ordinary.

"Must of been my imagination." Bee thought as he turned around to enter the engine room.

* * *

-Outside of the ship a shadow sports two red eyes as it watches the vessel as it slowly sail through the void of space. It had nearly been caught by the yellow being, but it was nearly finished with its objective.

"Target sighted. Commencing with stage 2. Preparing infiltration unit." Was all it said as it released something round.

* * *

In an oval room three femmes stand at three different monitors watching for anything that may cause trouble. Bluestreak stood at the right side of the ship with a ship surrounded by a blue dome on her screen. On the left side of the room Silverstreak stood with the same ship only multiple red dots surrounding it. But in the middle of the room a blue femme with pink accents stood in the middle of the ship looking over the damage done by the unsuspected field popping up.

"Alright ladies, what's the status of the ship?" The bot in the middle of the room asked her two subordinates.

"Shields are at 98%, and rising soon we will be at full power." Bluestreak responded.

"Turrets at 96% accurate, and auto targeting has been activated. At this rate we won't even need to do anything but sit back and let the ship do all the shooting." Silverstreak added.

"Don't get cocky, kids. Overestimating ourselves is just inviting trouble." Answered the experienced veteran

"Yes, mam" Was all the twins said before going back to their respective monitors. For a while the only sound was the humming of the monitors and the occasional beep from pressing a key on the keyboards.

"Hey sis?" Bluestreak asked her twin suddenly.

"What is it?" Silverstreak responded.

"Why do you think Interceptor came out here?"

Silverstreak narrowed her optics at her sister and answered:

"I'm sure we'll find out when we find him." She then added quietly. "If we find him."

"You mean when we find him. " The bot in the middle of the room said.

With that both of the femmes looked back at their monitors.

As they were going about doing their jobs they heard footsteps coming toward them.

Turning around, they instinctively saluted as soon as they saw Prowl walking through the bulkhead doors.

"Hello, ladies. How goes the defense of the ship? " Jazz asked in a commanding voice.

"What defense? " Silverstreak asked smugly. "These bits and pieces are barely making a dent in the hull and if there is wreckage big enough to cause any problems, I'll blow it to smithereens."

Bluestreak rolled her optics at her sisters cockiness and continued to stare at the monitors. Just then she noticed what looked like a red ball with wings and an antenna floating around.

"Hey Jazz, " she said, gaining the superior commanders attention,"there is something on the monitors that I think you need to see. "

Jazz comes over and leans down to get a better look at the monitor.

"Hey Arcee," Jazz called the bot at the middle counsel. "Is that an Autobot distress beacon?


	3. Beginnings Part 3: and forgotten

In a dark chamber, an uneven sphere pulsates as wires and tubes pumps power and information to and fro the different sections of the room.

"Analysis of station: running at optimal proficiency.

Storage capacity: 65 percent.

Commencing inventory listings:

1\. Amount of spare metal for construction purposes: 8.75 cubic tons.

2\. Amount of raw crystallized energy-synchronized ore aka "Energon": 4.7 cubic tons.

3\. Amount of stabilized liquid energon: 897 cubic gallons."

After a few minutes of inspecting the manifest, the entity shifted its focus to the many links that supplied information from inside his sanctuary. It opened a multiple of screens on some showing a vast ship, pearl white floating in the middle of hundreds of debris, on others crews of robotic entities, mining away at the smaller and some of the larger pieces of the giant rocks. The ship had arrived a couple of hours ago and had started to salvage some of the debris that had gathered over the years. Mostly because of him.

"Status of information transfer from vessel 0652. 79% complete. Time till total documentation transfer: 3.8 hours."

Then, he caught a transmission coming from the ship to one of the salvaging operations.

Just then, as the entity was about to see if there were any chance that any of its hidden caches of supplies were in danger of being discovered, a warning popped up and started to blink uncontrollably. Opening the popup the artificial intelligence realized that the warning was from the perimeter "guard". As the sphere finished reading the message, it measured the probabilities and rewards from this new ship.

" Ship size: medium.

Armaments: medium.

Purpose of ship: possibly rescue/retrieval unit

possibility of assumption being wrong: 7%

possibility of hindrance of operation: MACHINE WORLD"

At this possibility he stopped to calculate the dangers of the ship. Finally, it said.

"2%, preparing links for transfer of data. Preparing to place Serpents on standby for battle." With that the entity turned to a cylinder near the back of the room and said. "Necessity of initiation "change of season" operation: 12%.

With that the machine starts sending messages all over the field, confident that it would triumph as always.

* * *

"Can you get it to open?" Asked a fidgety Brawn, his patience being tested at all the writing he has been doing.

"Cool your chasi," Jazz said, as he carefully tinkered with the sphere on the berth. "I was an Intel gatherer during the war, not a repair bot."

"Then what the scrap are you trying to do with the distress beacon?"

At this Jazz turned around and looked at Brawn straight in the optics and said

"I'm trying to open the ships identification signal chip from this hunk of junk. Every distress beacon has limited information about the ship it was carried on so that the rescue party could have at least some information on what to look for. "

Just then the orb starts to spark and after a few seconds smoke starts to rise.

"As soon as I can get it to open up a bit. "

Just then the bulkhead doors open and in steps Arcee.

"Find anything interesting, boys?"

Jazz, chuckles and says "Nope, not after you ladies found this floating around. "

Arcee looks at the smoking sphere and squeezes the sides of her head.

"Didn't we need that ?"

Jazz looks back at his failed attempt and laughs sheepishly.

"Yea, about that you wouldn't happen to have another beacon would you? "

Arcee takes her servo off of her face and replies,

"As a matter of fact, I do."

Jazz and Brawn both looked at Arcee with bewildered looks.

Jazz breaks the silence by asking "Say what now?"

Arcee walks over to the monitor and switches it to the outside cameras. What the picture displayed astounded the mechs. In a straight line multiple beacons floated, marking an invisible path.

Jazz watched the monitor for a few seconds, and after a while said "Well, at least we won't have a shortage of beacons to pry open."

"Why do you think there are so many beacons out here?" Brawn asked.

"Looks like they lead somewhere." Arcee answered, "But where?"

"Only one way to find out." Jazz replied "Brawn, you're at the wheel. Follow those beacons. Let's see where this energon trail leads."

Brawn nods and leaves the room. Arcee turns back to her commanding officer, her eyes tinged with fear and curiosity.

"Where do you think they came from?"

"Come again?" Jazz turned his head back to look the femme in the eyes.

"The beacons. There's so many of them. Where do you think they came from?"

Jazz turns back to the smoking device on the bunk. "I don't know. "

* * *

Outside the ship, the shadow watches the ship as it gains speed. As she watched the ship rocket away she's received a hail.

"Status: responding. Designation code: Delta-15. Please designate caller." The shadow asked automatically.

"Designation: Delta-15. This is Alpha command. Status update required." The monotone voice asked. It was husky, and would give anyone shaken. Anyone who could be anyway.

"The new target is heading to sector e-19. Estimate time till arrival is 7.49..."

"Modify original objective. New rendezvous position: Sector a-21. Adjust the route as soon as possible."

At this the shadow grows concern.

"Command are you sure this is a wise idea?" The shadow asks "The ship-201 would be close to the sector a-19, where the other ship is currently being occupied. If they were to meet…"

"Designation: Delta-15. If I may be so bold, are you doubting me?"

At this the concern disappears and again nothing is felt as it answers "No, sir."

* * *

Hours later on the Optimus

"Are we there yet?" An annoyed Brawn asks, his comrade Hot Shot at the monitors punching away at the keys.

"For the last fragging time. I DON'T KNOW." Hot shot said with a stern voice. It had been nearly a hour since they had discovered the beacons and now he was wishing they never had.

"Do you know when we will get there?"

Hot shot sighs and mumbles to himself "Should of stayed on Cybertron. Though that this mission would have had more action. Might as well be rusting here from Tox-EN poisoning."

As Hot Shot sat at the monitors brooding, he continued the sweep through the ship's databases. He marveled at the invader that had been planted into the systems. It hadn't gotten past the automated firewall that protected the central mainframe from any invading threat, but everything else, flight controls, automated system, even the ships fire suppression systems had been invaded. And then it had stopped. It did not proceed any further or tried to enter the area now heavily fortified in the ship's mainframe. It was nerve-wrecking.

"What are you up to?" Hot Shot mused.

"What's up?"

Hot Shot turns and lets go of the breath he was holding in. "Not much Jazz. Just trying to figure out what's the virus is doing."

"What do you mean?" asks the white mech, walking up to the monitors to get a better look at the screen.

"Well, the virus looks to be attaching itself to everything it comes in contact with. But instead of taking all of the systems its attached to apart, it appears to simply merging with the systems and then staying there."

"So let me get this straight." Jazz asked skeptically, "The virus in the ship is not a virus?"

Jazz turns to the blue bot, waiting for an explanation. Hot Shot turns and when he sees the commanding officers looking at him he shrugs his shoulders and says "Hey, I was a Wrecker because of my hot headedness, not my attention span. Which is what is usually used when learning a skill like programming."

Jazz face palms. He had not expected this trip to be so stressful, and the crews jumpiness wasn't helping.

"Hey boss, I think I found something." A gruff voice says. Jazz turns to see Brawn looking down onto one of the monitors. As the white bot walks to the monitor he can't help but try to piece together the mystery of the this dreary place.

"What cha got, Brawn? "

"Take a look." Was all the bulky mech said, turning the monitor to let his commander get a better look at the screen.

Jazz looked at the screen, watching it to see any kind of life. After a he watched the picture for a few seconds he began asking for what Brawn was looking at.

" Brawn, you ok? I don't see anythi-" Was all he said before see something flash.

Jazz blinks as he continues to watch the screen. The light repeats itself in the same pattern, its message blinking like a prerecorded holiday decoration. Noticing a pattern Jazz starts decoding the lightshow.

"He, that's Autobot code." The white bot says, earning a questioning glare from his red friend.

"What's it saying?" Brawn asks returning his gaze to the screen.

After a few seconds Jazz smiles. "It says, 'Hello, need pickup.'"

"What's so funny?" Brawn asked with a curious glance.

Jazz looks to Brawn and answers "Cause, I think I know who it is."

* * *

In the cold void of space, a figure overlooks a massive ship as it drills away at massive pieces of metal that surrounded it. The being observes the creatures below as they scurried around the pieces of metal, every now and then peeling off one of the pieces and returning it to the huge ship that was stationed in the center of all the commotion. It single red eye observed it all with an expressionless gaze as it recorded it all for his master. It has been a few hours before the smaller vessel had been sent from the ship for whatever reason and he had reported it to his superior. But that had been hours ago. And the routine was still the same. Although he had never been programmed to have opinions, give something time and room and it will grow. It had seen countless ships and countless battles. It had never participated in a firefight but it always brought some enjoyment in watching the unwitting test subjects fall to the countless prototypes that was created by his master. It had to find entertainment in his job somewhere.

"Beep, beep."

A signal flashed in his head. He activates his thrusters to move out of the way of some debris as its eternal resting place shift for eternity. Then he turns his attention to the message.

"Threat alert: Class 3 ship incoming. Prepare for documentation and relocation." Was all that was written.

The entity sent an acknowledgment to the sender and started to move into his new position. As he was doing this he observed other pieces of degree move to reveal his brothers, who also received orders to relocate to new locations. Same old business.

"Hopefully, this ship will liven things up." The entity thought.

* * *

In the docking bay of the Optimus a group of Autobots are mulling around creates and ships. And in the middle of it all a white fem was standing around giving an earful to anyone who he deemed to be slacking off. As this was going on another door on the other side of the bay opens and in enters a group of bots.

"Hey Orbit, how's everything going?" Jazz bellows to center of attention.

"Jazz, what can I do you for?" She answers as she inspects a create of munitions.

"We got some unknowns outside the ship and are going to investigate it." Bumblebee responds as he looks at some bots fiddling with what seems to be a flat headed cylinder.

"What are you brain-dead buffoons doing with that create, put it by the hanger door so that it can be easy to get to!" Rivet unexpectedly yells at a mech who was pushing a sturdy looking chest across the floor. The wary mech looks back at his boss and grumpily changes the direction of the create to its new destination.

"Ok, so you need a transport ship to get you on to that asteroid, I think I have the right ship for you." The fem says before walking towards one of the hangar doors. The group follows her to the humungous doors and as they approach it Orbit turns around and gleefully presses a button on a controller that was laying on one of the many workbenches. A hangar opens showing a sleek blue and white ship

"This here is the Valkyrie Class dropship. It's got optic camouflage, dual-photon reactors and a signal scrambler. It can go 0 to 200 in less than a micro-cycle." Orbit fawned, the mad twinkle in her optics indicating a strange, sad personal connection to the ship.

"Cool ship, Orbit." Jazz said approvingly. After a few minutes of thinking, he looks over to the head mechanic and asks "Never seen this module before, where'd you find it?"

Orbit turns around and answers "I didn't find it. I made it." Looking back at the ship she continued "Me and Shock-drop were both pilots for the Autobot transport and evac platoon. Needed something picked up or dropped off in a hurry. We were your bots."

Then she gets a sad tone "This was our idea. A ship that could fly virtually undetected and withstand a light barrage to get any team in and out without ever being found out."

Bumblebee whistles as the group eyes the small ship, inspecting it to see if a single flaw could be spotted.

"Bit overkill for a simple pick-up, isn't it?" Prowl asked as he ran his hand over the bow of the craft.

"Ya, well..." Orbit starts to stammered.

"Hey' where is Shock-drop?" Brawn asks as he pounds the hull, getting a good clank from it. "You said you built this ship with him didn't you?"

At this Orbit face sinks as. She looks at the ship and replies "I said we designed the ship together, not build it." Slowly sliding her hand over the paint she adds. "Shock died during the last few days of the war, about a year before Optimus Prime ordered the boarding call for the ark. He had been given an assignment. To take a small team of Autobot Wreckers to what was believed to be an abandoned airfield with parts that could have been used on the ark if the need should come." Turning back to the group, her eyes in pain, Orbit continued, "It turned out that Decepticons had been scavenging for parts themselves, because when Shock's team got there the Cons had dug themselves in pretty badly. From what the survivors reports, Orbit dropped the team in midair just before an anti-air gun shot him down." She was on the verge of shedding lubricant now.

"Hey, sorry we didn't know." Bumblebee said, surprised at the revelation.

"Ya, well I'm over it" Orbit said, sniffing a bit. Then she looks to the side and surprising everyone as she yells "Not over there you dunce bucket, over by the loading lift."

With that everyone looks back at the bot who had nearly placed the crate that he had been dragging across the floor. Barely looking up he starts moving the crate to its new destination, mumbling something no one but himself would ever understand.

"So you want something more practical, do you?" Orbit said, her attitude changing from, hurt to a strange mix of peppy and strong. "I think I got what you want. Follow me." The fast transition further baffled the team as she lead them to another hangar door. As this one opened up a familiar Silver glint of the standard issue Autobot dropship installed a feel of familiarity to everyone that laid eyes on it.

"Now this is what I'm talking about," Brawn exclaimed, snapping everyone back to the moment at hand, "old, battle-tested, and ready for another round."

Arcee looks around to see if anyone understands what he meant by that. After a few shoulder-shrugs she looks back at the ship and realizes what Brawn meant by that. The ship was covered in scars! Large ones, small ones, many dug deep into the armor while others had barely scratched the paint.

"So this old warbirds seen some action, hu." She exclaimed.

"Yep, found it in an old Autobot bunker." Orbit said while opening up a screen to look at the software to make sure everything was in place. "From the battle records this tubs seen plenty of action." Turning around she continued her history lesson. "She was at the very beginning of the war at Fort Syth right up to the end at the fall of Iocan where she was abandoned at the bunker where he Autobots hide most of their stuff to help use to rebuild Cybertron later."

"Wait, a second I thought Optimus ordered the used of any materials to use to build and improve the ark." Silverstreak said, tearing her eyes away from the working relic.

"He did," Orbit retorted. "But that doesn't mean that he managed to get to every bunker that was made. So what wasn't used was sealed until the planet reawakening caused the plates to sift and most of the stuff was either spit out or destroyed."

Jazz whistled, as he runs his hands over the scars on the ship, "Man, this ship is lucky, don't you say." Turning around he looks his comrades in the eyes and says "this thing has seen what many of our friends have not. I say this ship deserves a name."

"But it's already got a name." Hotrod said, waking to the side. Everyone looks to the side and sees a single number that had remained from being rubbed out.

"It's name is Seven."

* * *

In the void of space a ship slowly descends from the Optimus. On it 5 beings sit in perfect silence in anticipation of who they should meet once they land.

"So, who do you think we'll met when we land?" Hot Rod asks from his seat.

"Hopefully, someone from Perceptor's expedition." Jazz replies.

"Expedition? I thought they were bots who evacuated during the final days of the war."

Brawn asks.

Jazz chuckles and responds "Before the war Perceptor was an astronomer and physicist. Even if the war destroyed our planet he still would find a way to make new discoveries among the stars. And seeing as he was able to become head of the Autobot science coalition, he has to be pretty convincing when it comes to advancing the field of science." With that everyone laughs.

"Hey Orbit, how long until we land?" Bumblebee asks from his seat, shifting in place.

"A few more minutes," The mechanic replies through the intercom. "get ready to land."

With that, the ship goes nearly silent, the only sound being the hum of the engines resonating through the hull.

"Does anyone know any good jokes?" An agitated Brawn asks.


End file.
